Robin's blog

Day 5, by Kaia

Day five in Sweden was an early one for us girls. We woke up at 6:30 I believe and left to play another Swedish team for our B Flight playoffs. Skills and everything else wise we had the upper hand. The team was nothing special at all, however we somehow managed to tie the game 2-2 at the end of regulation time. Lucy and Brooke scored for us. Since the games need to move quickly we went straight into a shootout and no overtime. We ended up losing the shootout 1-2, with some great saves by Jordyn and our only goal from Lydia. We were all very disappointed because we all knew we were a much better team. The bright side of losing was that our schedule for The rest of the trip was pretty much cleared.

Since we had such an early game, by the time we were back some boys were just getting up and eating breakfast. The day before (I left out some key details) C2 had lost their first playoff game as well. They lost 1-3 with a goal from Pete.

Also the day before the lovely C1 boys declared themselves the instigators of a prank war with the girls. After we had our terrible loss on Swedish national t.v. The boys thought it funny to string up our room, deflate our mattresses, and hang them from our lights. All this was right before curfew, knowing that we would want to come home and crash, so instead we spent the night plotting revenge and blowing up the nasty chalky mattresses. But back to day five, this created a great window for us girls to get revenge on the boys since they had an afternoon playoff game. So after the C1s left we took the privilege of getting into the boys room and doing damage lady hawk style.

After we had left the scene of the crime we went to cheer on the C1s even though they had trashed our room the night before. They played a well fought game against a ginormous German team. With some loud cheering, body paint, and hawk costumes (custom made by the C2s) we all thought the C1 boys would pull the win. Unfortunately on a controversial uncalled off sides goal, they lost 0-1.

After the game us girls were feeling quite guilty for our acts and hoped the boys would not be too upset with what they had to come home to. Luckily their reactions were not what we thought and thus ended the prank war. After the game the girls split up some going to the disco and some shopping. The C2s however went to a European castle. The rest of the night was all very chill. With the ending of soccer for every team, some players joined in on the coaches match. USA vs. Everywhere else I think. So day five was the conclusion of soccer in Sweden for the Blackhawks.

-Kaia

Girls' update (by Kaia)

Day three in Sweden started out with a nice long sleep in for the girls. Both boys teams had early morning games. C1 won 1-0 against Brazil with a goal from Joey Elwell. C2 lost to "some Swedish team" 1-3 with a goal from Jordy. Us girls walked to our game against yet another Swedish team and lost 1-2 with a goal from Karah. So props to the boys for being the only ones to win in the Gothia cup.

Night three included a trip to the big Gothia cup disco at the big Scandinavim Stadium thing. Personally I had fun, but there were mixed feelings about the dance. The night also included some hair cutting presented by the C2 boys, Alex was the receiver of the home made haircut.

Day four was pretty exciting for us girls. We had to prepare three facts about ourselves for the Swedish televison that would broadcast our game. As for the boys C2 got "their bootys whipped and handed to them" 0-13 against a Swedish team. As for C1 they are still the only Blackhawks to win in Gothia, again with a score of 1-0 against a Swedish team. Joey scored yet again for C1. Us girls lost again 0-4 to another freaking (pardon my Swedish) Swedish team. It was still pretty cool to be on tv. Some high points for our team is that Lydia recovered and is able to play now. Unfortunately now that we lost and are in the B-flight we have a 8 o' clock game tomorrow morning.

Apparently no other girls want to do a blog post so until next post.....

-Kaia

Girls game to be live streamed 7:50am Wednesday

The girls game today will be televised, with the video stream available via Facebook.

Here is an article about the streaming:
http://www.gothiacup.se/eng/index.php/2011/07/viasat-will-broadcast-goth...

Here is the Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/viasatfotboll

IMPORTANT: apparently you must "like" the page to enable the streaming.

Our start time is 2:50 local time, 7:50 St. Paul time. The halves are 25 minutes for group play rounds, this is the third group game.

The Blackhawks boys -- if they can find body paint -- are planning to display their Blackhawks spirit from the sidelines.

Robin

Report from the girls on the first two days in Sweden (written by Kaia)

Hello Parents, It's Kaia here from the girls team. Right now I'm sitting in our lounge area along with fellow lady hawks playing UNO with some C2 guys. Our time here in Sweden has been fun but definitely different from Denmark.

The ferry ride over to Goteborg was pretty sick. Although the boat had a good selection of entertainment, the waves made me quite sea sick. Once we got to Sweden we went to this sports bar to see the womens world cup game. Honestly the ridiculously priced pasta at the sports bar tasted pretty bad. So to top off the night USA lost to Japan, which you all probably know by now. However in the same restaurant we were watching the game at, there were two other Minnesota girls teams. That was pretty cool being thousands of miles away from home but still being with people who share your accent. By the time we were back from the restaurant I'm pretty sure it was one o' clock and everyone was crashing fast.

Day two in Sweden has been very eventful. The guys had games early this morning. Unfortunately (but not at all) all us girls were too knocked out to hear them getting ready for their game. So I couldn't tell you how well they actually played. Both teams lost though. C1 lost to England and C2.... I honeslty cant remember, my brain is a little fried. Our game was at one. The center of the tournament, Heden, was pretty cool. There were a number of turf fields all surrounding a mini soccer town square. We played on one of the nicer fields. The score was 2-4. We were down 0-3 by halftime so I'm pretty proud of our recovery. We played yet again another Swedish team. So, to be honest, I'm kinda getting tired of playing all the blonde-haired blue-eyed aggressive girls.

After the game we found out some really exciting news. Apparently our game on Wednesday -- against yet another swedish team -- will be broadcast on Swedish television. So that excited all of us girls. We were all discussing cool goal celebrations we could do on Wednesday WHEN we score.

Tonight was the Gothia Cup opening ceremony. It was very very cool. The while Ullevi stadium was packed full of soccer players. Definitely a sight I won't forget. Each country was announced and a select team got to represent their country actually out on the field. I'm kinda glad we didn't represent USA though, because then we would not have been able to see the majority of the actual ceremony. The whole ceremony made the tournament even that more exciting. I think actually seeing all of those people from across the entire globe in one stadium to play soccer was a pretty amazing thing. The program was a bit cheesy but that made it more meaningful to everyone there, kids, coaches, former Gothia payers, sponsors, and all that jazz.

Anyways, Sweden has been a lot more energy and a faster pace than Denmark but I am having just as much fun here. Curfew is right now and all three teams have games tomorrow. Glad I can update y'all. Shoutout to mom and dad, love and miss you. :) -Kaia

Blackhawks Girls flying high in group play

Today (Tuesday the 12th) marked the first day of group-play at Dana Cup No. 1 in Frederickshavn, Denmark.

The Blackhawks girls first played Utbynas SK (www.utbynassk.se), a team from Gothenberg, Sweden in a morning match-up on a wind-swept but sunny field. While the girls had a few more opportunities and did well possessing the ball, the end score was 0-0.

In the second game, vs. Froya IL (http://www.froya-idrett.com/), held in the evening, the girls acquitted themselves well against a Bergen, Norway team of Viking princesses. Despite a strong showing in possessing the ball during the first half, the Blackhawks were tied 0-0 at half time (note that qualifying round games are only 20 minutes each half).

After a rousing half-time speech by Coach Jamie "remember the gipper" Hagg, the girls took the the field -- and quickly got to work. Four and a half minutes into the second, Maddie made a monster throw-in deep into Froya territory that Sarah raced to and dribbled to the edge of the 18-yard box and launched a perfect shot into the upper far corner of the net. 1-0.

Barely a minute later, Jordyn saved a Froya shot, punted to midfield. The Blackhawks weren't first to the ball, but Froya failed to trap, kicking it instead to a waiting Brooke. Brooke's kick dropped the ball over several defenders to Sarah. Sarah then wove through and around three defenders on her way to serving a grounder into goal from just inside the baseline and inside the box. 2-0.

Nine minutes later, Meg forwarded a pass from Sarah to Olga at the top of the 18-yard box. Olga got the turn on the defender, but her shot was blocked by the Froya keeper. Olga's following up of her shot paid off, though, as the keeper's save was only a temporary deflection. Olga fought off a defender to then kick a grounder into goal. 3-0.

Three minutes later the Blackhawks sealed the deal. Martha slowed down a drive and the Froya kick was saved by Jordyn. Jordyn sent a deep punt across half where Latrice fought a Froya player to send it back to Brooke at the half. Brooke then took off in a streak toward goal -- passing defenders like questions on the driver's education test. Brooke put a solid shot past the challenging keeper to the cheers of the other Blackhawks.

With the win, the girls took the a slight lead in their group (4 pts, followed by 2 teams with 3 points). Tomorrow morning, they face their final group play opponent, hometown honeys F.f.l. Fodbold. A win gives the girls a bye to the semi-finals and a day-off on Thursday.

Check below for results of group play, and a link to the playoff brackets:

http://www.cumap3.se/cuponweb/php/cupresclass.php?Cup=1931&Lang_Current=ENG&wd=www.cumap3.se&Klass=G15&Grp=2

Robin Vue-Benson

Vuebenson@mac.com

Sent from my magically delicious iPad 

More on Day 1

Written at 5:30pm Sunday, local time.

The bus ride from Copenhagen to Frederikshavn was a grueling 8 hours. We did stop about 45 minutes along the way for food and to stretch.

We arrived at our school at 9:30pm local time, after almost 20 hours of travel.

The girls were immediately greeted by representatives of a Brazilian boys' team. The Blackhawks boys apparently were not greeted by any girls' team representatives. So, doing as young men do, they went for a long run.

The girls got to bed shortly after midnight and were up about 8am. The boys went out for a 7am run--apparently still having not been greeted by a girls team.

The boys and girls practiced during the morning, then headed to downtown and then to "Palm Beach" ("Palmestrand"). At the beach, players waded in the Baltic, saw some jellyfish, and played beach soccer.

The evening will involve settling in some more.

Opening ceremony is tomorrow evening

Blackhawks take flight in 106 hours!

After almost two years of anticipation and fundraising, the take-off time is fast approaching.

Blackhawks Scandinavia 2011